Otherborn Blog Tour: Author Interview & #Giveaway

Monday, 22 April 2013

The Author: Anna Silver

I’m a renaissance woman, to be sure. I’m a mother of three, an artist and oil painter, an author, and have entertained a host of other things like tarot reading and holiday decorating. Basically, I love creative expression through any medium.

I’ve had a reputation among family, friends, and coworkers as being good with words. That’s lead to an assortment of freelance work like writing web copy and writing for a local paper. But I’ve been writing fiction seriously for the last few years.

Writing

As soon as I fell in love with books and reading, I had the desire to write. I decided I was going to be an author around eight-years-old and I started several novels in spiral notebooks as a kid. I attended a writing program in college but life took some unexpected turns and I put my writing on hold for family. I picked up it again in the last decade, off and on at first. OTHERBORN is my third novel, but the first to be published.

I have a whole host of social media and online sites where you can keep up with me and my work. Most importantly, you can visit my website, which is where you’ll find excerpts, video trailers, and other book candy, as well as my blog. Next to that, I’m always on facebook, twitter, and goodreads. I’m also an avid pinner and you can always check my publisher’s site as well. All the url’s are listed below.

Confined within Capital City’s concrete walls, London keeps an impossible secret: she dreams. And she’s not alone. Her friends are seeing themselves in “night pictures” too, as beings from another world. Together they uncover the story of their avatars, astral shamans they call Otherborn.

When one Otherborn is murdered and another goes missing, London realizes someone is hunting them. Escaping along the Outroads, they brave the deserted Houselands with only their Otherborn to guide them. Can they find their friend before the assassin finds them?

Two main things inspired OTHERBORN. The first was an article I read on the Otherkin subculture. More or less, Otherkin identify with something other than human inwardly. This can be anything from vampires to faeries to wild animals. Some of them claim to have experienced past life memories where they were another being and many describe feelings of not belonging in our culture. I was mesmerized by the idea because it creates so much instant conflict.

The other big influence was my personal research into dreaming. I’ve been fascinated by dreams for a long time and my own dreams have played an important role in my life. I’ve experienced many precognitive dreams and dreams that have helped me heal. I was reading a favorite author on the subject, Robert Moss, who talked about shamans being able to meet in their dreams to share information and help one another, regardless of the place and time they live in. It just screamed STORY to me.

How does it feel to be releasing your debut novel?

Intense. Ecstatic. Pivotal. I could go on and on, but I’ll spare you. This is, however trite, a dream come true for me, and one that I’ve held in my heart for a very long time. It has been an incredibly validating and empowering experience. And I am learning a ton!

Can you describe your protagonist London in less than 140 characters?

London is…

Conflicted, passionate, stubborn, and incredibly loyal. She's easily misunderstood and rough around the edges, but she has a heart of gold.

If you could encourage anyone to pick up OTHEBORN, what would you say?

If you’re looking for something a little dark and a little edgy, that stands apart from the YA clichés we all know and love, have I got a story for you!

Bookie Questions:

Favorite genre and why?

Well, obviously my favorite genre is YA. I love the pacing, I love the broad range of subgenres, and I love that these books don’t shy away from anything. There is a formula to YA that just works for me, both as a reader and a writer.

As far as subgenres go, I love anything with an element of fantasy. So, actual fantasy, urban fantasy, paranormal romance, science fiction, and dystopian are all very high on my list.

Favorite YA author and why?

This is impossible for me to answer. I have too many all-time faves to name just one. But I will give my current flavor of the month when it comes to YA authors, and that would be Jessica Spotswood, the author of Born Wicked. I couldn’t put her book down to save my life and I cannot wait for more! I also really love Jodi Meadows, Nina Berry, Maggie Stiefvater, Leigh Bardugo, Melissa Marr, and Sophie Jordan right now. And of course the blockbusters like Veronica Roth and Suzanne Collins.

Debut author/upcoming author we should check out?

Nina Berry’s debut Otherkin is excellent. As is Kat Zhang’s debut What’s Left of Me. I’m looking forward to Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by April Genevieve Tucholke and Fraction of Stone by my fellow SSP author, Kelley Lynn.

Favorite 2012 read and why?
My favorite of 2012 was, without a doubt, Born Wicked. It has all the elements I love: fantasy, magic, rich world building, complex and conflicted characters, and feminist themes. Spotswood is simply a master at this genre. But some close runners up would be Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo, and Gilt by Katherine Longshore.A book series you love and why?
I adore reading series and trilogies. The Firelight trilogy by Sophie Jordan was amazing— so unique and well written! Also, The Wolves of Mercy Falls by Maggie Stiefvater, and The Forest of Hands and Teeth trilogy by Carrie Ryan, both of whom bring a poetic, lyrical voice to tried and true subjects like werewolves and zombies. Right now I’m reading the Wicked Lovely series by Melissa Marr and loving it! As for some of the oldies but goodies, you can’t do much better than the A Wrinkle in Time series by Madeleine L’Engle and Tolkien’sThe Lord of the Rings.